With the recent advances in video compression methods, standardization efforts, and VLSI implementations, stereoscopic digital video coding has received much attention. There are several applications that have been associated with stereoscopic video. For example, it is common in computer vision to estimate 3-D motion and shape information based on a stereoscopic source. Stereoscopic image representation is also advantageous for robot remote guidance. For medical imaging, it is desirable to have a stereoscopic presentation of the depth information using CT (Computed Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). In Europe the DISTIMA (Digital Stereoscopic Imaging & Applications) project is currently investigating a compatible transmission of stereoscopic video based on satellite broadcast. International Organization for Standardization, "Report of the ad hoc group on MPEG-2 applications for multi-viewpoint pictures", ISO/IEC JTC/SC29/WG11 No. 861 March, 1995. Stereoscopic RADAR imaging also has been found to be an important application.
In view of the importance of the stereoscopic video applications, the Motion Pictures Experts group (MPEG) committee decided to form an ad hoc group to define a new profile which is referred to as Multiview Profile (MVP). International Organization for Standardization, "Status Report on the study of Multi-viewpoint pictures", ISO/IEC JTC/SC29/WG11 No. 906 March, 1995. The goal is to provide a compression scheme with multiple viewpoint capability while maintaining a backward compatibility with the current monoview MPEG compression scheme.